Second season key for coaches in SEC

Friday

GAINESVILLE - For college football coaches, Year 2 on the job is the big jump year.

If second-year Florida coach Will Muschamp is on his way to joining the best in the business, chances are there will be strong evidence of that this fall.

Every elite coach in recent Southeastern Conference history enjoyed a significant improvement in his second year.

At Alabama, Nick Saban went from 7-6 in 2007 to 12-2 the following season. Gene Chizik built on his first campaign at Auburn (8-5) and ran the table the following season at 14-0. Of course, having Cam Newton transfer in helped.

Unlike Muschamp, Saban and Chizik weren't making their head-coaching debuts at Alabama and Auburn, respectively.

So take Georgia's Mark Richt and LSU's Les Miles as examples. They both enjoyed huge progress in their second year as first-time head coaches.

Richt took the Bulldogs from 8-4 in 2001 to a 13-1 follow-up.

Miles' first head-coaching job was at Oklahoma State. The Cowboys were 4-7 in Miles' first season before improving to 8-5 the next in 2002.

Of course, the man Muschamp will be compared to the most is former UF coach Urban Meyer. In 2005, Meyer guided the Gators to a 9-3 season. The next season, UF went 13-1 and won the national championship.

The Year 2 jump is vital for a coach at one of the SEC's premier programs.

That jump never happened for former UF coach Ron Zook. The Gators went 8-5 in both of his first two seasons (2002-03). Zook was fired midway through his third year.

Can Muschamp make the jump? The answers will begin to unfold starting with Saturday's opener against Bowling Green at Florida Field.

There is certainly room for a spike in success. The Gators struggled to a 7-6 record last season.

"I think any good CEO, any good competitor, any good player, any good coach is a hard self-evaluator," Muschamp said. "The guys I've been around are hard self-evaluators, and they look to themselves first before they look at anybody else. There's no question that you live and learn."

Why does the jump occur in Year 2? Generally, there are two primary reasons. The coaching style becomes more ingrained in the players. That's happened in Gainesville this offseason. Muschamp has talked throughout preseason practice about how the players can coach the players now without constant instruction from the staff.

"You get to the point where he's put his stamp on the program," Florida offensive coordinator Brent Pease said. "You've got a feel of the kids, and you've built up your standards and how to interact. They know what's right. They know what's wrong."

Perhaps more importantly, the roster becomes more of a reflection on what the coach wants, not what he inherited.

Florida's roster is currently made up of 78 players who were actively recruited to campus and immediately awarded scholarships. Of those 78 athletes, 37 have only played for Muschamp, a 47 percent makeup. There are 18 players who played one season under Meyer and one under Muschamp, leaving 23 (30 percent of the roster) who have played more for Meyer than Muschamp.

"I think as much as anything, the guys have bought into what we are trying to do," Muschamp said. "I think that the attitude of our team is much improved over a year ago from where we were.

"I feel very comfortable with where we are as a program and our discipline."

The process wasn't quick. Florida junior defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd says the Gators didn't gel under Muschamp until practice leading up to the Gator Bowl against Ohio State.

"It took a little bit," Floyd said. "I say we got the whole team on it during the Ohio State game. That bowl practice really jump-started our year. We liked the direction we were heading in, and we were going to keep striving to get further.

"Some people learn in different ways, and some people group together in different ways, and it took us a year."

The best SEC coaches in the league right now needed a year to get their program going. But just one. Whether Muschamp belongs in that group will be answered over the next four months.

Hays Carlyon: (904) 359-4377

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